The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-08-19
TWICE BURIED.
Written for this paper.l


tain in the middle Of the little village in Bull
garia, and Yeorgio was the name of the
sturdy peasant who stood beside her as she
let the sparkling water drop down into the
pitcher that was already running over, and
she listened to him with bent head and flushed
checks, unmindful of the young couples who
stood around her, for in this country all the
courting between the young people is carried
OH about the public fountains, where the
young girls go at sundown to draw water.
Sofia listened as Ysorgio talked with shy
smile upon her face and rich red showing
through the brown of her cheeks, and
CLEAN of heaven i'll her great black eyes.
The heavy braids of her hair were twined
with little ornaments that made pleasant
tinking as her head trembled, and the en-
broidered homespun linen kerchief that was
folded across her breast heaved with happy
heart throbs, and yet what a future was
spread before this happy maiden!
"Sofa," said the young man, "my time will
be up now III three months, and my master
will give me sheep and lamb and a little
lean pig, and we can have Father Dimitri's
cottage up by the hill and the three acres of
ground We can live there and till the
ground and take care of Father Dimitri for
the rent. He will not be much trouble, will
he, little Sofia?"
"And I have got the little brindle COW,
Yeorgio, for my portion, and wool enough for
bed, and have my mothers pots and pans
and copper kettles, you know. Twill not come
to you quite empty handed, Yeorgio. for
have two golden Ira, too. that I sold my EN-
broidery for, and we can get many things
with those, cannot we? An old man brings
a blessing to a firesde, they say, and am
sure love good old Father Dimitri, who has
no one to love him or care for him since they
took away his daughters"
$50 you will come, little Sofia? Shall we
be married st. Georges daya You know he
is my patron"
ayes, if you wst," answered she sweetly
and gravely, with great rush of joy to her
pure and handsome dark face and she held
out her hand, which her peasant lover took
i'll his and lifted to his lips, and then tn
abashed, in the presence of all tue young girls
and young men around the fountain, he
leaned down and kissed the sun burned fore
head lifted to his first kiss, and they all knew
that these two were betrothed.
Then Sofia took her pitcher, and together
they walked slowly down the road toward
the farm where Sofa had lived and worked
ever since her mother had died. The father
had been drafted into the contingent of farm
laborers who are forced to go every year to
Constantinople to reap the grain upon the
sultan's farms, and from the cruel hardships
of that lot lie never recovered, but died there,
like so many of his unfortunate countrymen,
and was buried like dog. - $3.50.
The mother had struggled as best she could,
working at the farms and villages until her
strength was spent, and she, too, died, leav-
ing Sofia to the people with whom she died.
Sofia had since then herded the sheep and
goats, wove and spun and worked in the
house by turns, and had always been an
honest, simple, upright girl, and in that
small world, where caste was unknown, the
poor orphan was as well regarded as those
whose parents were still living and well off.
She had known Yeorgio ever since she could
remember, and he was always good to her,
and he, too, was an orphan, and SO there was
another bond of sympathy between them.
Yeorgio was as poor as she, his life having
been passed working for small farmer
whose possessions were few, and who had
done all that could be eexpected of him in CIV
ing the youth the sheep and lamb and the lit
tie lean pig for his twelve years service.
Now the two poor orphans were about to
Join their fortunes, or rather their lack of
fortune, and take the additional burden OF the
old man Dimitri, though, to be sure, they
were to have the use of the house and land as
long as he lived.
The house was low stone and mul hut.
without windows and with only two rooms.
and with ground for the floor besides, but
wherever love dwells the house is a palace.
The two now walked along the grassy path
toward Sofas home, talking quietly and
gravely over their wedding, seriously as il
the step they proposed taking was simply
purer and truer friendship and union OF in
terests, and one that was to last forever.
They did not indulge in rapturous words,
or glances, or caresses, but they were truly
happy, and though their future lay in a
scrubby old cow and skinny pig. they felt rich
in their youth, their health and their habit, of
industry, and their present minglirg OF
mutual interests.
They were too ignorant of tie high flown
sentimentality in use in civilized society to
indulge in the murmured words and tender
caresses that other people feel to be the only
outlet of their bliss, but in their simple.
honest hearts they felt a joy and pure happi-
ness that could not be surpassed. "A Fl
Sofia's mistress received the news gravely
and kindly, and at once sent for the village
priest, who was, as all Bulga ians are, of tie
Greek religion, and he came followed by all
his retinue of deacon, acolyte and choir boys,
and the ceremony of betrothal was per-
formed; and in this religion the ceremony is
as binding as the wedding itself.
In another part of the village another scene
was being enacted The Turkish officer in
that part of the pashalic was seated at his
supper, when there entered one of his miIlions.
one whose business it is to collect taxes from
those wretched peasants by fair means or by
foul-more often by foul.
In each pashalic, or county, the peasants
were obliged to support the pasha, or COVER
nor, who holds arbitrary power, and the law
is that all the possessions and increase OF the
Bulgarians are to be divided into five equal
parts, of which one-fifth goes to the crown,
one-fifth to the pasha, and one fifth to the
support of the Turkish officers and soldiers
quartered in the place for the purpose of col
lecting these taxes and to quell any possible
uprising Of the wronged and outraged people.
The remaining two-fifths are supposed to be-
long to the people who produce it, but their
own clergy manage to obtain nearly if not
quite another fifth, leaving the wretchedf
peasant scarcely enough tc keep body and
soul together. aaa.
The Greek priest is ca:.ei upos. % visit the
sick and bury the dead, to bless the new born
of every animal and the first fruits of the
trees and grains. to baptize tie children. and
to betroth or marry the young, and to meet
at stated intervals to say prayers for the dead.
Therefore, on an occasion SO momentous as
the hetrothal of this poor young couple came
naturally a whole train of priests, and their
procession with tapers and other necessary
insignia caused quite fintter in this little
village, and hardly had they reached the
house where they were expected when the
servant stood beside Rassim Bey to tell the
news.
Rassirn, like all the other Turks Of stand
ing, had his harem, and not content with
that, and having absolute power even for life
or death over these poor Bulgarians, took
any and every young girl he fancied and shut
her up by force within its impenetrable walls,
and kept her there until he was weary OF her,
when he let her 60 or made present OF her
10 one of his subordinates.
His attention was now called for the first
time towards poor little Sofia, and he gave
his men orders TO seize her the next day and
bring her to his house, and il Yeorgio or any
one else interfered they were to con6scate all
their possessions and give them the bastinado
after which he smoked his pipe and went TO
bed
Among his slaves and servants there was
an old Nuhian who served rs pipe bearer and
1,-ay.x~r Eis fnaa